Does Boris Johnson dye his hair?

A weekend interview with former London Mayor and MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Boris Johnson, has re-ignited a contentious debate long on the back-burner of British political discussion: does Boris Johnson dye his hair? The blonde bombshell vigorously clarified today that it's a no.

In an interview in the Sunday Times with Tim Shipman, Johnson is quote as replying "Yes" after Shipman asks if he dyes his hair. News sites jumped on the story Sunday morning, with headlines blaring that BoJo admitted to dying his hair.

But the natural blonde defenders came out quickly. Boris's sister, Rachel Johnson, tweeted that it was a "massive headline grabbing wind-up" and that "all Johnsons are natural blondes!"

Shipman then tweeted that he had been called by the subject of his profile, requesting "an urgent point of clarification". Johnson told Shipman that he thought the whole thing was a joke and that he has in fact "never" used hair-dye.

Johnson's wife then told Shipman that she would "stake my life on it and that of my children".

This is not the first suggestion that Johnson's famous mop top might come out of a bottle. In 2015, the Mail quoted celebrity hairstylist Heinz Schumi as saying "I'm telling you, it's bleached". In response, Boris's father, Stanley Johnson said he could "reassure the nation, it's quite genuine": "'I can tell you that's 100 per cent nonsense. I remember when he was born in New York, I nipped off to get a pizza and when I returned he was swaddled with all the other babies — but quite distinguishable by this shock of white hair."

If the peroxide rumours were true, Boris wouldn't be alone on the political scene. Former Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi underwent a hair transplant to deal with his receding brow and in China, leading members of the Communist Party are almost ubiquitously seen sporting jet black hair, no matter their age.